


surreptitious

by WritingOnTheWalls



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Canon, Drabble, Fluff, Love, M/M, ahhh, as in, happiness, i can't believe this is real life, if you plan on listening to that, please do that first, spoilers for the live show 'a spy in the desert.', the bonus track, where we find out the secret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 06:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22491238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingOnTheWalls/pseuds/WritingOnTheWalls
Summary: "existence is the most thrilling fact of all."
Relationships: Carlos/Cecil Palmer
Comments: 14
Kudos: 55





	surreptitious

**Author's Note:**

> the secret blew my mind; had to write some fluff. i'm so in love w/ this podcast. (for glow.)

The third time they wake up to find that The Faceless Old Woman has left a spider on Esteban’s pillow whilst they slept, Cecil buys a hatchet from Leanne Hart. 

“Aren’t you being a little overprotective?” Is Carlos’ exasperated sigh as he tugs Cecil back towards their own bedroom. 

Cecil is unwavering. “Have you seen what she can do? Have you met Dana Cardinal?”    
  
Carlos buys his own hatchet the following day. 

For the most part, things aren’t too difficult. Esteban has perfect hair, and perfect teeth, with skin a few shades darker than Carlos’s own. He smiles and laughs a lot, and Cecil knows he’s going to be a comedian before he even gets his first word out.

The fact that it’s “TELLY” whilst he brandishes his fork from his highchair only serves to make him fall more in love. 

Carlos, to his credit, is a lot less preoccupied with science these days. There’s something even more thrilling watching this child - his son - grow up before his eyes. Existence is the most thrilling fact of all; he was often quoted as saying, and he’d never felt it more than the time he spent with their tiny son. 

Carlos would follow him around with a notebook, using forbidden writing utensils to take note of every step of his son’s growth. Esteban would occasionally ‘accidentally’ find himself armed with a crayon or two, and Cecil would inevitably come home to a wall filled with orange caricatures. 

“Our son the artist,” he would coo, before picking him up and handing Carlos a tin of paint. “We don’t want him to get arrested. Not yet, anyway.” 

Esteban learns all the typical rhymes and games. The ‘briny depths adventure song’ makes him laugh the most, and Cecil is relieved at how easily he picks up  _ the list.  _ Watching Janice wheel her cousin around, teaching him all about birds and flowers and Lizard Over Lords fills his heart with the kind of joy he’d spent years refusing to hope for. 

Their son predictably enough has a curious mind and a need to stick absolutely everything in his mouth. Carlos accidentally brings a vial of ants home from the lab one week, and there had been a tense moment spent trying to find out if Esteban would grow wings (he’d been okay, although the doctors had insisted Carlos keep him away from any further radioactive biological experiments). They start feeding him non-radioactive fruit instead. He seems to like strawberries the most and when John Peters catches on, there’s a basketful waiting on their doorstep every Tuesday all year round.

They take Esteban to visit Khoshekh in the station bathrooms, and Khoshekh hisses and curls up around his slender neck, whilst Cecil squeals with joy. “He loves him, SO MUCH!” 

They buy a dog after that. 

Erika visits sometimes - it’s what Josie would have wanted - showering the kid in all kinds of forbidden gifts. Carlos tenses up the first time he manages to yell an excited “angewl!” before remember that acknowledging the existence of angels is legal now. He double checks the locks that night, just in case.

On the rare nights Cecil has to work late, Carlos curls up on the couch with his son, curled up with a blanket gifted to them from Steve, and the two of them quietly listen to Cecil on the radio. He’ll come home hours later to find them both wrapped up in each other; perfect hair a mess; Carlos covered in baby drool, and thank the glowing arrows and Huntokar and the secret police and Night Vale for this life. 

He’ll pick up Esteban (taking care not to trip over the jack-in-the-box from Michelle and Maureen) and carry him to his cot, kissing him softly on the forehead before leaving him (with his strawberry patterned giraffe plush) to all kinds of hopefully pleasant dreams, before joining the other love of his life on the couch. 

“I love you,” he’ll whisper softly, wrapping Carlos up in his arms, before joining him in quiet, peaceful sleep. Real sleep. The world is cruel and unkind and refuses to be just - but sometimes, it gets things right. 


End file.
